


Under the Skin

by Aespren



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Arguing, Bodyswap, Comedy, Gossip, Jealousy, Jean vs. Eren Rivalry, M/M, canonverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-18 07:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5903164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aespren/pseuds/Aespren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The worst part about being stuck in Armin's body wasn't the height difference, nor was it the increase in responsibilities. It wasn't even the hair that kept blowing into his face.</p><p>It was having to deal with Eren Yeager.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the random bodyswap AU fic. It was inspired by Geolu's fanart [here!](http://geolu.tumblr.com/post/87739563167/personality-swap-request-though-this-is-more-like)
> 
> I had a LOT of fun writing this. Which is probably why the story ended up being 10,000 words long. There were so many possibilities to work with, and I only ended up doing about half of all the ideas I came up with. My personal favourite parts are days two and four.
> 
> I'm not even going to try to explain why this is happening in the fic. If you want to think it was magic, science, or titan powers then your idea is just as good as mine. Just try to take this as something fun.

Day One started with guidelines.

“Don’t leave the barracks without brushing your hair, no making any bets with Connie, and above all else, don’t say anything nice to Eren.” Jean lifted up a finger for each point he made, making sure to emphasize the importance of the third requirement.

“Okay. I won’t,” Armin agreed. “In return, you can’t smirk at anyone or get into any fights, and you _must_ talk nicely to Eren.”

“Or I can just avoid Eren and not talk to him at all.”

“You can't avoid Eren. If you do then he'll get worried.”

“You're not serious. Do you really want me to talk to Eren while I’m in your body?”

“No, I'd rather you don't talk to anyone while you’re in my body - especially not Eren.”

“Okay, me too. Problem solved.”

“ _Jean.”_

Jean cringed as he heard his name being said by his own voice. Did Armin really need to say it so forcefully? It made him feel like he was punishing himself.

“Come on! I can put up with a lot of things but forcing me to hang out with Eren is something you should know I won't be able to handle. I’ll mess it up.”

“Listen, you don't need to talk to Eren. Just go and stand beside him for a bit. Open a book. If he says anything to you, just tell him you're too tired to talk because you stayed up all night reading.”

This was how their evening had gone for the last three hours; Armin would suggest a rule, Jean would create his own to counter it. Pretty soon they wouldn’t have anything left they _could_ do. They’d spent the first ten minutes telling each other not to speak to basically anyone in the Corps, and another ten determining that was impossible unless they hid in the forest until everything was better (which had also been considered). After that, the two of them had decided the best course of action was to figure out a way to pull this off. That was how they ended up hanging out in the orphanage’s supply shed at two in the morning.

“Fine. But I’m not spending longer than fifteen minutes with him.” Jean looked up at Armin (which was still weird, even if he’d been doing it for half the evening), to where his own set of eyes were staring at him worriedly. “Okay, half an hour.”

Jean crossed his arms. “But any longer than that and it’s not my fault if something slips!”

No arguments came from the other side and Jean took that as agreement. He tapped his foot as he waited for the next activity he would be banned from.

“Jean, please…”

Armin didn’t continue right away and Jean was getting tired of waiting. He wanted to get to bed as soon as possible. Then he could wake up from this ridiculous dream. “ _What now?”_

“Could you… stop making that face with my face?”

“What face? I’m not making a face.”

“Jean…”

“Fine. I’ll do my best.” Jean groaned and ran a hand over his face. It felt wrong; his fingers, his face, his height… everything. But he couldn’t focus on that right now. “Just stay calm.”

“‘ll try,” Armin replied. “I’m still just worried. What if something goes wrong? What if I mess up and say something I don’t mean to? Or what if someone says something to me that you didn’t want anyone to hear? Or-”

Jean placed his hand on Armin’s shoulder- well, his shoulder technically.

“Armin, calm down. We've spent the last three hours discussing this.”

“How are you so calm?”

In all honesty, Jean had no clue. He was in someone else’s body with no idea how it had happened and no idea of when they were going to switch back. For all he knew they could be stuck like this permanently. Yet somehow, he had managed to be the sane and logical one in this disaster.

If he were to guess, he’d say it was Armin’s instability that was making him act so rationally. Standing on the sidelines, watching as your own body throws an emotional tantrum of rants and emotions, was enough to keep his mind focused on the current situation.

At least Armin was doing better than when this all started.

_"And what happens if someone asks what we're doing? What if they ask a question I don't know the answer to? What if we end up learning stuff about each other that we wanted to keep secret? Do you have any secrets, Jean? I have about-"_

_"Armin." Jean grabbed his comrade by the arm. He needed to stop his pacing before he ended up digging a ditch. "Armin, calm down."_

_"It's Jean."_

_"Huh?"_

_"You have to call me Jean."_

_"What?"_

_"If we're going to pull this off then you have to be Armin and I have to be Jean."_

It had taken him twenty minutes to get Armin to a reasonable state. He wasn’t completely stable, but at least he was no longer raving like a madman.

The other possibility was he was in such a daze to what was happening that he was able to separate himself from it. He still barely believed this was happening.

Neither of those were definite answers, though, and Armin was still looking to him hopefully, waiting for a response. So Jean gave him the only answer he felt would help, even if it wasn’t true; ”I guess because I’m certain this will fix itself eventually.”

“How long is eventually?”

“I don’t know.” He threw a hand up in the air. He was just as lost as Armin was. “A few days, maybe.”

“...Days?”

Jean spoke again before Armin had a chance to go off on another worried tangent. “Hours, minutes, however long it takes.”

Armin didn’t look convinced.

“You know what, I bet by tomorrow everything will be alright. We'll wake up in our own beds and realize that there's no need to worry.”

“Yeah…” There was no ignoring the hesitance in his voice.

Jean forced himself to take a deep breath and clear his mind. Armin was supposed to be the one giving him guidance here; he always had a plan for emergencies. If he lost control again, Jean wasn’t sure he’d be able to maintain his own cool. He needed Armin to be there for him, and for that, he needed to be there for Armin.

“Armin, you’re the most logical person I know. You’ve gotten us out of more situations that I can count on one hand, and probably saved Eren’s ass twice as many times. If you think this is the challenge that is going to beat you, then you’re wrong.”

Jean gave Armin’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “And don’t forget, you’re not doing this alone.”

Jean did his best to grin, to show Armin everything would be alright, but he doubted it was that convincing. Regardless, Armin returned the gesture with his own meek smile.

“You’re right. We can handle this.”

\--

By Day Two Jean realized he couldn’t handle this.

Eren was trying to talk to him way too often. Jean had already taken to going the long way around buildings so he would have less of a chance to run into him, but he knew his time was limited. This was why Jean had taken refuge in a task he hoped would prevent Eren from finding him: Armin’s chores.

If Eren was anything like him (most of the time he wasn’t) then the last place he would look for Armin would be in the middle of the kitchen, where Captain Levi was likely to walk in at any moment and grab the first free available person to take care of some unwanted task. It was the best place to hide from nearly anyone on the squad.

As for Jean, he was already discovering another thing he couldn’t handle; reaching the dishes on the top shelf.

It was his job to set up for the orphanage’s lunch time but he was encountering more difficulties than expected. In his own body there would be no problem, but Armin’s height made the simple task a bit of a challenge. He could reach the cups but getting a firm grasp on them was a different matter. The last thing he wanted was to pull them down only to have them all slip from his grasp. How was he supposed to do anything when the world was built for normal sized people?

Jean stepped onto the chair he’d moved to the counter. Sooner he got the cups down, better chance he had to avoid Levi seeing him with his boots on the furniture.

“There you are!”

Shit.

The sound of shattering ceramic echoed. Jean’s hands flew to the back of the chair to stop it from falling backwards with his surprised movement. It wobbled for a moment but stopped.

“You okay?” Eren Yeager asked. His hands held firmly onto the back of the chair.

Great. Just the person Jean wanted to see.

“Just _fine._ ” Only his pride was damaged.

“Were you thinking too hard or something?” Eren teased. “Overworked your brain and lost your balance?”

Typical. He nearly hits his head and dies and all Eren cares about is insulting his intelligence. He didn’t have time for this bullshit. “You got a problem, jackass?”

“I-” Eren stopped. His eyes stared into Jean’s as his mouth hung partially open. The only word to come out of his mouth was a name; “...Armin?”

That’s when Jean realized something was wrong. The hands holding onto the chair next to Eren’s, the voice that came out of his mouth, the hair falling in front of his face… none of them belonged to him.

“Shit. I mean-” What would Armin say in this situation? “Sorry. It’s… been a rough day.” It wasn’t a lie.

“You want to talk about-”

“No.” Never. Talking to Eren would mean officially accepting he was no longer Jean Kirstein.

The stare Eren gave him was unlike anything Jean had ever seen on Eren’s face before. It looked almost like concern. Whatever it was, Jean knew for sure Eren had never once looked at him like that.

“That was a quick response,” Eren said.

“Because I didn’t need to think about it.” That still sounded too rude to be Armin… “It’s personal, okay?”

“So tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s private.”

“Okay we’ll go somewhere else to talk about it.”

That wasn’t what he’d meant. “It’s private from you.”

“Oh.”

Jean hoped that was a sign Eren understood.

Jean jumped down from the chair. He wanted this mess to be cleaned up as quickly as possible. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck in a room with Eren Yeager, confessing all of his life problems.

“...Why?”

Jean groaned. “Can’t I keep stuff from you?”

“But why would you?”

Seriously? Was Eren unable to understand the concept of personal space, or were these two actually so close that the concept of privacy was an anomaly? Whenever Jean spoke to Armin it took him a good ten minutes just to get him to admit something was wrong. If Eren was able to ask and expect Armin to answer him right away then it probably was the latter reason. Of course, Jean had always known Armin was closer to Eren than him.

But that didn’t stop the jealousy.

“Armin, you’re worrying me.”

The look Eren was giving Jean was so pitiful that it was painful to ignore. Even he couldn’t leave Eren like that. Besides, it would ruin Armin’s reputation if he ignored his best friend.

“Listen, I’m just tired. I stayed up reading really late last night,” Jean said, using the excuse Armin had given to him. It was nearly as pathetic as Eren’s face.

Eren’s eyes brightened instantly. “Man, Armin. You had me worried for a moment. Figures it would be something that typical.”

Note to self - when it came to Eren, always try what Armin suggests first. As long as it involves not having to say more than a few sentences.

Jean started to pick up the shattered pieces of the cup. He had no idea where he was going to hide this to keep it from Levi. Did the Captain keep track of how many cups they had?

“Hey.”

“Yeah?” Jean said over his shoulder.

Jean felt a hand fall onto his back. “I can handle this. You should go and rest.”

“But Captain Levi-”

“If he asks, I’ll tell him Hange called you to prep the experiment early.”

Jean looked up at the male hovering over him. This was the guy he’d been stuck with for the last three and a half years, and the guy he’d been competing affections with for the last four months. Letting him do a chore for him was almost an acceptance of a lack of pride.

...Then again, he was in Armin’s body, so he had no reason to care.

“Sure. See ya around.”

\--

“No, Jean, you can't lock yourself inside the barracks all day.” Armin’s words were firm.

After asking around for a few minutes, Jean had found out where Armin was from Sasha. He was in the stables, stuck cleaning up after the horses they'd holed up in a makeshift stable beside the orphanage. With how crazy everything had been recently with titans and the Military Police, Levi's squad had decided to keep their horses close to them at all times. There was no knowing when or if they would need them again.

“Why not? I already did all your chores like you wanted.”

“You mean you got Eren to do them for you.”

“Where'd you hear that?”

“Sasha.”

“Oh.” It was no secret among the squad that Sasha and Jean were often on edge with each other. What they didn't know was how much the two of them spent gossiping about the rest of the squad with each other. The two of them had an unspoken agreement to keep each other updated on whatever drama was happening amongst their comrades. But since Jean wasn't the one she was actually talking to right now... this was bad news.

“She told me you were acting weird and I should go make sure you're okay.”

“Oh. Well uh. I'm fine.” If Sasha dared to bring anything up in front of Armin that he wasn't prepared for... well, he didn't know what he could do. He couldn't blame her. He just had to make sure to act normal to give her as little reason as possible to talk to Armin.

“Asking Eren to do them for you isn’t the same as doing them yourself.” Armin didn’t look amused.

“He offered!”

“They were your chores!”

“No, they were yours.”

“So?” Jean watched as his own body lifted up the pitchfork it was using to scoop up the hay off the ground and waved it around. He wasn't sure if Armin was trying to threaten him with it or just didn't understand their difference in strength. Either way, Jean backed away instinctively. “ _This_ is your chore. But I'm still doing it.”

“Okay, okay, fine. But I couldn't even reach the top shelf without standing on a chair! Eren only offered because I was having trouble in your body. And I got your chore done, so what's the problem?”

“If Eren came in here and offered to do one of your chores for you, while you were in your own body, would you accept?”

“Of course not. What kind of question is that?”

“It's the same for me.”

“That's not the same at all. Eren is my...” Jean wasn't sure how he was supposed to finish that sentence. He wanted to say rival, but Armin might question what they were rivals _for_. It was better to just reword it completely. “We don't get along. You and Eren are best friends.”

“And that's exactly why it's the same. I may not fight with Eren like you do, or be tall or as strong as you are,” Armin said. He'd stopped waving the pitchfork around but his grip on it had only tightened, matching the balled up fist his other hand was making. “But I still have pride. I can't have other people do everything for me!”

Jean cringed reflexively as he heard his own voice crack with Armin's words.

“Okay, I get it.”

Armin didn't look any happier.

Jean sighed. “I messed up. I won't do it again, alright?”

Armin set the pitchfork down. “Okay.”

“We should stop talking about this before someone shows up and thinks we're crazy.”

“I should finish cleaning this stable before Levi comes out here.” Armin gestured behind him at the three stalls that were still untouched.

“Be careful around Buchwald. She'll bite you if you don't handle her right.”

“I thought she liked you.”

“Yeah, but you're not me.”

“Do you really think your horse is going to notice the difference?”

“She's smarter than you think.” Jean smirked.

“Can you please stop doing that with my face?”

Jean cut the smile. “Right. My bad.”

“You should get going to Squad Leader Hange. You have an experiment to observe today.”

“Do I have to talk to Eren?”

“Probably not. I usually just sit and take notes.”

“Good. Because if I have to talk to Eren one more time today I'm going to punch him in the face.”

“Jean.”

“Okay, okay. It wouldn't be like Armin Arlert to do that,” Jean smirked, having already forgotten about Armin's warning. “But that doesn't mean Jean Kirstein can't.”

Armin groaned. It was the most Jean-like thing he had done all day.

\--

Just how much longer was he going to have to sit here, watching this excuse of a saviour pick up rocks? Armin had said Hange's experiments were “fun”, but so far the only thing of interest to happen was watching Moblit try to keep Hange from going down Eren's throat to study his stomach first hand.

For the record; he'd succeeded, but only because Eren had gagged. Hange had then spent ten minutes talking to everyone she knew about how titans had gag reflexes, as if no one had seen it for themselves.

Honestly, she’d probably talked about it for longer than ten minutes, but Jean had decided that was enough observations for the day and had left while she was distracted. Armin had only asked him to come and write notes – he had never specified how long. And he'd written down half a page worth anyway – plus diagrams! That was good enough. Besides, his hand was starting to hurt.

Jean lifted himself onto the outer fence of the field and sat down, letting his legs dangle on the edge. Armin had said he wasn’t allowed to sit in the barracks all day so this seemed like the best alternative. At least if the Captain asked him what he was doing here he could say he was keeping an eye on the children.

...Or keeping an eye on Mikasa Ackerman.

Jean watched as a red-scarfed girl walked across the field from the barracks to the orphanage at a steady pace. Armin said if he hid up in his room then Eren would get worried. But if he hung out with Mikasa, then there would be no problem, right? They were all friends, afterall.

“Hey, Mikasa, wait up!”

By the time Jean caught up, Mikasa was already standing outside of the main building, one arm reaching out to grab the handle. She stopped when she saw Jean (well, Armin) catch up with her.

“Where are you going?” Jean asked after stopping for a moment to catch his breath. It had taken him longer than expected to catch up with the girl. Her walking pace was nearly faster than Armin’s run.

“To make dinner. It's my turn.”

“Cool.” Did Armin say cool? Who knew. Mikasa didn't seem to care. “So, uh, I wanted to know if you, you know, maybe, wanted to... hang out or something? We could go for a walk. Or uh- just chill. You know, just spend some time together. ...As friends!” Jean added the final words as an afterthought.

“I have to make dinner.”

Right. She’d said that already. “What about after dinner?”

“Alright,” she replied monotonously.

Her lack of excitement didn’t stop Jean from outwardly smiling. “Cool!” Jean said with more enthusiasm than he’d ever heard Armin use.

“Eren's on clean up duty, but after that we'll meet you out by the fence.” Mikasa pushed the door open, but Jean stopped her with another question.

“...We?”

“Eren and I.”

He'd never said anything about Eren.

“Actually I was hoping just you and I could hang out. By ourselves.”

“Is something wrong?”

“What? No. There's nothing wrong. I just want to hang out.”

“Then why aren't we bringing Eren?”

Seriously? “We're allowed to hang out just the two of us.”

“Did you and Eren get in a fight?”

“No.” Not in this body, at least.

“I'll talk to him for you. “

What was wrong with these guys? It was like the three of them communicated on some frequency overlooking the meaning of words. First the privacy issue, now this.

“No, don't bother. Just forget I said anything.”

Jean didn't bother looking back as he walked away. He heard the door to the building swing closed.

\--

A sigh escaped Jean’s mouth as he let his back fall onto the grass. Above him, an uncountable number of stars hung out of reach.

If Armin were here he'd probably tell him about whatever constellation he'd just read about. Or maybe they'd make new ones by themselves. Jean liked it when they did that.

He hadn't seen Armin at all since the afternoon and the thought of where he could be was starting to drive Jean insane. He'd asked Sasha to tell him to come outside to the fields when she saw him, but so far no one had shown up except for one of the kids from the orphanage, who had promptly run off as soon as he saw Historia walk outside.

Jean wondered if maybe Sasha hadn't relayed the message – but that was unlikely. She was one of the most reliable people to pass the message along, if only because it gave her something to gossip about to others. There was no way she'd pass up the opportunity to talk about two people meeting up in the middle of the night, under the stars.

She said the last time she had seen Armin he had been talking to Squad Leader Hange. He'd better not be telling her what was going on without him.

Jean set his sketchbook to the side and dropped the pencil on top of it. He'd brought it out here to give himself something to calm down, but so far it was having the opposite effect. All he had wanted was to draw a picture of a deer. Just a simple doe with trees in the background. It wasn't anything too complex for him, but somehow he had managed to turn the animal into something more likely to see hanging from a market stall. No matter what he did the pencil just never fit right in his hand; it always felt too large.

Jean closed his eyes. Maybe he could just take a nap out here and Armin would find him whenever he was free.

“Whoa. I didn't know you could draw.”

Jean's eyes shot open. “Armin!”

The green eyes looking down at him definitely did not belong to the person he was waiting for.

It was Eren. Again. Lucky him.

Jean had always wondered what it was like to be Armin; to have to put up with Eren on a regular basis. He now knew it was twice as bad as he had ever imagined.

“Sorry. I was dreaming.”

“About talking to yourself?”

“...I was outside of my own body.”

“Oh. I've had dreams like that before. Where you're left watching as you do something stupid, with no way to tell yourself not to do it.”

“...Yeah.” Jean had no idea how to reply. What Eren said could be about many situations, of which Jean knew he wasn't the right person to talk to about. It wasn't that he didn't know about what Eren could be referring to – it was just too personal for him to want to delve into. As much as the guy annoyed him, he wasn't going to invade his privacy too.

“So where did you get this sketchbook?”

“It's Jean's.” There was no point in lying about it. Things would only get more complicated later if he said it was his then Eren saw him with it in his real body. ...Assuming he ever got his real body back.

“He let you borrow it?”

“Yeah, kind of.”

“So this is why I haven't seen you writing in your diary lately. You've been too busy becoming an artist!”

Well, at least his drawing had turned out crappy. This way Eren wouldn't have any high expectations when they switched back.

“The other drawings in here are all Jean's?” Eren said while casually flipping through the pages.

Fine. Just go ahead and look at it without permission, why don't you. Though if Eren had asked, he might have said yes anyway. He could use some cheering up right now. Even if it was coming from Yeager.

“Hey, is this a picture of you?”

Oh crap.

“Uh... yeah. I asked Jean to draw it.” Better than telling Eren the truth. If Eren knew Jean was the one who asked he'd think he'd been blackmailed or something.

“It's not bad.”

“Thanks- I mean, I'll tell Jean you said so.”

“He's got nothing on you though,” Eren said, stopping to stare at a drawing of Jean's old bedroom. “You should give him some lessons sometime. Your drawing is much nicer.

That had to be a joke. “Are you kidding me? It's crap!”

“No way. This drawing has way more to it. The way the deer is just acting all casual while a titan's arm reaches past it is awesome.”

“That's not a titan. That's a _tree branch._ ”

“But I thought art was all about drawing stuff all fancy so that you have to think about what you're looking at.”

“That's- no! It's about making things look good.”

“If you say so. I like it.”

“Well if you like it that much,” Jean said as he grabbed the sketchbook out of Eren's grasp. He flipped to the page of the mangled deer and with a quick rip tore the paper free of its binding. “Then here. Take it.”

“What?”

“It's ugly. Take it.” Jean shoved the sheet into Eren's hands.

“Okay? Thanks Armin.”

“You're welcome,” Jean grumbled. He flipped the book closed and gathered his pencil up from the grass. He was done with waiting around with Armin.

“I'm going to bed. Night.”

\--

When Armin arrived back at the barracks in the middle of the night, hair disheveled and bandage wrapped around his right hand, Jean didn't bother asking what had happened.

“I warned you. She's a biter.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Armin barely looked at him as he walked past. Jean decided not to push it any further. He'd talk to him tomorrow.

After a brief groan from Connie (whose bed was right next to Jean's) and a quiet “sorry” from the intruder, Armin made it into Jean's bed, and the room once again returned to its quiet monotony.

\--

Day Three is when everything went to shit.

“We need to talk.”

“Agreed.”

It was the first time the two of them had gotten a chance to talk with each other - to _really_ talk to each other - since the first day. It was now the third evening the two of them had been switched and they’d agreed to meet out in the storage shed after sunset to minimize the chance of being overheard. The day had been eventful for both of them. Jean knew this because everyone in the squad kept on talking about them, and not many of the comments were nice ones.

To put it simply, Jean had a lot to say, and not a lot of willpower left to hold it back.

Jean could tell from Armin’s tone that he was getting just as fed up with this situation as he was.

Looking at his own body was painful at this point. His eyes were a lot wider than usual, and his lips were pierced tight. It made him look doe-eyed and confused, and didn't exude any of the usual coolness that he knew he was known for. Would it kill Armin to smile?

From how his hair stuck out from the side of his head Jean could tell Armin had tried to push his hair back behind his ears. It was probably out of habit, but it still didn't make it look any nicer.

Overall, Armin looked like he’d just come back from a mission.

"Everyone is noticing how weird I'm- You're-" Jean paused to catch his thoughts. "How weird _my body_ is acting."

"I don't think your performance is too convincing either."

Jean wanted to argue back, but he knew he had no right. He was doing pretty miserably at being Armin. But he was doing a better job than Armin was. At least _he_ still looked like the same person. Jean gave Armin a quick one over and decided now was as good a chance as any to fix how he looked. Jean reached out to fix Armin's shirt collar. "It doesn't help that you don't even try to stay looking nice."

Armin placed a hand around Jean's wrist. It felt firmer than anything Armin had ever done to him before, but he wasn't sure if it was because Armin meant to it to be, or just because of the differences in body size. Did it always feel this controlling when he grabbed Armin's wrist?

"That's one of the things we need to talk about," Armin said, pushing Jean's hand away from his body. "You need to stop trying to fix how I look every chance you get."

And let Armin walk around like he'd just gotten out of bed? That wasn't happening. "I'm not fixing how you look, I'm fixing how _I_ look."

"It doesn't matter. Everyone thinks it's weird."

"I guess it is kind of weird to have _you_ trying to help _me_ look good..."

Armin narrowed his eyes and somehow his lips managed to become even more pierce. Was that how he looked when he was upset about something? He'd have to practice a nicer looking way to be angry when he got his own body back.

"That's not what's weird about it!" Armin seethed. "Yesterday you came up to me and started pushing my hair to the side, then unbuttoned my shirt because I was 'wearing the buttons too high'."

"You looked all stuffy!"

" _And then you pulled the shirt out of my pants._ "

"You had the day off. There was no reason to have your shirt tucked in!"

"But did you have to do it _in front of Connie_?" Armin asked. "Do you know how badly Eren interrogated me last night after he found out?"

Oh. Well, that would be quite a conversation. Jean could already imagine how that would go. Though, maybe seeing Eren's true side would convince Armin to stop defending him as often.

"Okay, okay, fine. I won't fix your clothes in front of other people." "But you have to stop looking and acting so weird in front of everyone."

" _I'm_ acting weird?"

"Of course. Connie and Sasha told me that you keep hitting your head on the cupboards."

"Because you're too tall!" Jean found himself flinching as Armin yelled the words. They were much louder than anything Armin had ever produced with his own voice while talking to Jean, that was for certain.

"Well you’re too short! I nearly cracked my head open twice already because I have to stand on a wobbly chair to grab anything.”

“ _Then don’t grab the wobbly one._ ”

“There are no not-wobbly ones!” Jean retorted. “You’re just too small!”

"Oh really? You didn't seem to find my size to be an issue when you were hiding behind objects and _stalking_ me."

"What are you talking about now?"

"Connie and Sasha were telling me they saw you watching me from behind boxes in the storage shed!"

"They wouldn't have known I was there if you weren't allergic to _everything_. They only found me because I kept sneezing."

"How is it my fault that I have allergies!"

Jean ignored Armin's argument. He didn't have time to argue the small details. "I'm surprised those two even talked to you at all, considering you snapped at Sasha to ‘stop talking bad about Eren’ in front of everyone. She muttered it was ‘Armin’s fault’ I was so grumpy about Eren when she walked by me.”

Jean took Armin’s silence to throw in another comment. “Then you were mean to her again, and Connie too, in the afternoon. I heard them making fun of me for actually doing my chores. And apparently I did _theirs_ too after lecturing them about it.”

“Because that's what you're all _supposed_ to do! And when I told them they needed to they stared at me like I’d turned into a titan. I’ll probably have to do my chores now too because I doubt you did.”

"What chores? All you had to do today was sit and watch an experiment.”

“And write notes.”

“You mean write about what stuff the dumbass titan has done in the forest? He lifted up a tree and then fell over; there you go, you've now been updated with the entirety of today’s events!"

"You'd notice more if you would stop drawing pictures in my experiment log. Hange already thinks it's weird enough that my writing managed to become twice as legible overnight. Drawing birds making a nest out of Eren's titan's hair is not an effective use of time."

"Then what am I supposed to be writing down? Nothing ever happens!"

"Then don't go!"

"I would love to, but you said I had to hang out with Eren so he doesn't 'get worried'."

"What's the point if you're just going to oggle Mikasa?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Connie and Sasha told me all about how you've been doe eyed over her and now I apparently have a crush on her!"

"I wasn't _that_ obvious."

"Yeah? Didn't you wonder why all the little kids laugh whenever you walk into the classroom? They make kissing faces whenever your back is turned."

"I just thought they were laughing at how girly you looked."

"I wouldn't look so girly if you didn't put _clips_ in my hair."

"I wouldn't have to use clips if you _cut your bangs_. I can't see anything."

“Do you even need to see anything? When you're not stalking me or Mikasa you're usually locked away in the barracks."

“So? I'm acting natural. You spend most of your time locked up reading anyway.”

“Yes, but I don't tell people to 'screw off' every time they try to talk to me!”

“Well you should. It's much more effective at keeping people away!” Jean yelled. “And I come out for more than you or Mikasa. In case you forgot, I have to be there at every meal time. I'm not lucky enough to get to take my food on a watch shift and eat by myself."

"Well it's good you don't, otherwise you wouldn't be able to pawn all the food you don't like onto Sasha's plate!”

“It's not my fault your taste buds make everything taste disgusting.”

“Yours are just as weird for me! But at least I don't spit my food out like a baby! You're making me seem like I'm a child!”

“Yeah? Well you're making me seem like a loser!"

"Or maybe everyone thinks you're a loser because that's what you said about yourself to Eren yesterday!"

That wasn’t his fault. Eren had been the one to start talking about how much he sucked. “I was trying to act natural."

"When have I ever called you a loser?"

"I don't know!"

"If I had I'm sure Connie or Sasha would have told you right away, seeing as they've apparently told us _everything else._ "

"Then maybe we should both just stop talking to Connie and Sasha!"

"Fine!"

And with that, Jean and Armin parted ways, having had enough of each other to last them for the night.

\--

On Day Four Jean had given up.

He didn’t say a word to Armin when he left for breakfast, even though he hadn’t so much as brushed his hair before walking downstairs. There was no point in bringing it up; neither of them wanted to talk to each other, and it’s not like he could say anything with everyone else in the room. On top of that, he just didn’t care.

He’d had enough of trying to meet everyone else’s expectations of how he should be. Let them think what they wanted. It's not like Armin could make him any _more_ disliked by anyone in the squad.

As for Jean, he stayed in bed. He didn’t want to sit down with everyone else for breakfast and didn’t see the point. Mikasa had come in an hour earlier to tell him he had no assigned tasks for the day, so there was no purpose to getting out of bed. It was unusual to get a day off, and it was possible Mikasa or Eren had convinced Levi he was sick enough to warrant it, but it was also just as likely that the Captain was fed up with his lacklustre performance over the last few days. Whatever the reason, he didn’t care.

The only downside was the silence.

With everything going on, Jean had never gotten a moment to really think about what was going on. Or rather, he’d never let himself have one. He’d wanted to believe this was going to be fixed by the time he woke up from that first night’s sleep. He had believed he would wake up to find out it was only a dream.

Yeah, sure. As if he would be so lucky.

Until this fixed itself he was trapped with long hair repeatedly falling into his eyes, and a face that was incapable of being anything other than cute. If he was stuck like this forever then he'd better get a growth spurt at some point. Jean only appreciated Armin’s height when he was the one standing half a foot taller.

Jean groaned and pulled the blankets over his head. Why had he been so stupid last night? Most of the stuff Armin did wasn’t even his fault. And he’d done his own fair share of stupid things too. After yesterday, Connie and Sasha probably didn’t want to see either of them for at least a month. And if Sasha continued to spread information without any filter, then hopefully others would stay away too. Not having to deal with anyone was the only thing he could reasonably ask for at this point.

For one of the first times in his life, Jean wished his mom was here. As much as he wanted to be left alone, having someone to talk to would be nice. He didn’t have anyone to discuss personal topics with now… except Armin. And he’d fucked that up royally last night.

That’s when realization dawned on Jean; Armin had no one to talk to either.

Jean had always been jealous of how many people Armin had to talk to. If something was wrong, he could go to Eren or Mikasa. If neither of them were free, or the issue lay with those two, Jean was also an option, albeit an uncommon one. If something was wrong for Jean though, he had nowhere to go but Armin. And if the problem was about Armin (which had become increasingly common the last few months, for reasons Jean wasn’t ready to admit) then he had no one. Sure, he’d sometimes discuss things with Sasha, but there was only so much he could say to her for fear of Connie finding out. Everyone had their own little group of friends except for him. He was forced to share with two people who wouldn’t give him the time of day.

But... Armin no longer had them either.

By taking away his body Jean had removed all his possible confidants except for one; himself. Now neither of them had anyone to talk to. Way to go, Jean.

“Armin?”

The new voice was accompanied by the squeaking of hinges. With a few quiet footsteps, and a click of the door lock, Eren made his way into the room.

Jean pulled the blanket tighter above his head.

“Hey, Armin, can we talk?”

“Go away.”

“You’re not up to talking right now, I know.”

“I'm sick. I'll sneeze on you if you come any closer.” Jean did his best to make his voice nasally. The result was an even higher pitch of voice than before.

“Come on, I'm not going to fall for that. That's not how you get when you're sick.” Jean could hear the floorboards squeaking as Eren came closer. “My dad was your doctor, remember?”

...Shit.

“Well maybe I have something that I've never had before.”

“Then let me check for you.” Eren sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled back the blanket. He was getting close. Way too close.

Jean sat up. There was no knowing what Eren was going to do, but the last thing he wanted was to end up _cuddling_ with him, which seemed like a plausible situation considering how little Eren cared for his personal space. He knew him and Armin were close, but to find out they were _that_ close would break his mind and his heart. “No, get away, you'll get sick.”

“You know that's not how it works. Besides, I probably know better than anyone how to tell if you're sick or not. My dad was training me.”

Oh god. This was the last thing Jean had wanted. Keeping Eren Yeager as far away as possible from him had been the number one priority in this switch (Okay, number two. Number one was getting his body back). But now Yeager was sitting on the edge of his bed, leaning over him, and putting a hand up to his forehead. His actions were so tender they rivalled that of his mother.

“You don't look sick to me.”

Jean didn't say a word. So far everything he'd said had made things worse. His only choice was to play along and then hopefully Eren would take it that things weren't wrong.

“I think I know what's going on.”

Yeah, sure. There was no way Yeager of all people had enough perception to see what was happening.

“Both you and Jean have been acting really weird for the last few days.”

Well that wasn't too hard to know. Everyone was talking about them.

“And I’m getting worried.”

Eren reached a hand out to Armin’s forehead to check his temperature. Jean knew as soon as he felt it he’d know for sure he wasn’t sick, not that he believed it in the first place, but Jean had no plan of how to handle this. So he let him.

Eren’s hand barely touched his forehead for a moment. It was more concerned with placing a stray hair behind his ear. The touch didn’t stop there; the hand continued to carefully strum its way through his hair.

Jean didn’t know how to react; he wasn’t sure how he was _supposed_ to react. After all the hell that had occurred over the last few days, receiving human contact and understanding words from someone felt… nice.

It was a whole new side of Eren that Jean had never seen before. One for only Armin.

It made Jean feel comforted, jealous, and _confused_ all at the same time.

“Armin?”

“What about him?”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. I'm just... thanks for noticing something was wrong.”

Eren smiled. It was nothing like Jean had ever seen before. There was no malice in it, or pride. Just warmth.

“Here,” Eren said, handing over a small leather bound book.

“What's...” _What's this?_ Jean had almost asked, before he realized that he recognized that book. He knew what this was. It was-

“It's your diary.”

His diary. ...Armin's diary. The one that Armin had taken on the very first night so that he could write to relieve his stress.

But how did Eren get it?

“Eren, you-”

“I found Jean with it. He stole it from you again, and was reading it. That's what's been bothering you, right?”

Well he couldn't exactly tell Eren it wasn't his... “Yeah, that's right. Jean was being a dick again.”

Eren raised an eyebrow, but he laughed. “Yeah, exactly!”

How could he say that and still seem so nice? Shouldn't he be angry?

“Don't worry though, I took care of it for you.”

“You... took care of it?” Jean could feel his stomach drop.The warmth that had inhabited his body froze.

“Yeah, don't worry, he won't even think of taking it again,” Eren grinned, “Not after I punched him in the face for you.”

The warmth was gone.

“You...”

“I think I might have broken his nose too.”

“You did _WHAT?”_

Jean pushed up out of the bed, knocking Eren onto the floor as he scrambled to put his feet on the ground. He struggled for a moment, momentarily tripping over Eren's writhing body, before making it out of the room.

He spent the rest of the afternoon in the bathroom with Armin, apologizing profusely as he wiped away blood, and wondering if his face was going to be left with a scar.

\--

Day Five is when Jean and Armin decided there was safety in numbers.

They had collectively pissed off or weirded out every member of their squad (plus some of Hange's) at least once this week. Connie and Sasha were still annoyed at Jean for forcing them to do their chores, Eren wouldn't come within five metres of Jean for fear of getting punched back, Mikasa and Historia were too busy to notice what was happening, and Armin had overheard Levi saying that he was 'too old to be dealing with teenage mood swings.'  

As such, they had spent the entirety of the day sitting on the hillside of the orphanage, unbothered, watching as their fellow soldiers took care of the children they should have been on duty to watch.

"What about Historia and Mikasa?" Jean asked. In the distance his dark-haired comrade walked by, crying child in tow.

"Too obvious," Armin replied.

"You sure? They're both too nice to Eren now."

"Yeah, but we'd notice by how they treat everyone else."

"I don't know, they both ignore me pretty equally," Jean argued, "And they both give Levi the death eye, sometimes."

"You have a point." Armin joined in on watching Mikasa handle the children. "But I don't think Mikasa would let anyone wear her scarf, body switch or not."

"Right."

"And even if they did switch, we'd notice once they touched the 3DMG."

This was how they had spent the entirety of their day so far; discussing the possibility of someone else having switched bodies. So far they'd determined no one else was acting as freakishly as they were, so it wasn't likely. But it had given them an opportunity to pass the time without resorting to silence, at least. Not that talking was making Jean feel any better.

It probably wasn't doing anything for Armin either; he looked just as miserable. On his face was a bandage from last night's incident, which matched the ones he’d gotten a few days back when Buchwald had bit him.

"What about Connie and Sasha?"

"We'd notice by meal time, no problem."

Armin let out a hum that seemed to be an agreement. "Commander Erwin and Captain Levi?"

"Levi doesn't need to get any taller. He's already enough of a pain in the ass as is."

"I think Erwin would take it well. Better than me, at least."

"Yeah, he'd probably act as if nothing even happened and just command the troops from Levi's body as if it'd always been that way."

"Or maybe he'd make Levi give the orders but then pop up in Levi's body in the middle of an attack and catch the enemy off guard. He'd turn it into some sort of battle strategy."

"I can see it," Jean agreed. "Eren and Marlo?"

"Let's not talk about Eren." Armin raised his free hand up to his nose as he spoke. "Please."

Jean wanted to joke about how his body seemed to naturally attract hate from Yeager, but he doubted the humour would fly with Armin at the current moment. Instead, he just said "sorry" and let Armin move the conversation elsewhere.

"Hange and Connie?"

"Nah, we saw Hange freaking out about titans yesterday." Thankfully, due to his less than exceptional notes from their last session, the squad leader had told him to "take a break" until he was "feeling better" and excused him from partaking in any further experiments until he said he was ready. He wasn't sure how long that meant for Armin, but at least he wouldn't have to ever observe Eren walking around like a toddler ever again - well, not in titan form.

"Could just be an act," Armin argued.

"Connie's not that good of an actor."

"How would you know?"

"I asked him to cover for me when I snuck out of the barracks back in training. As soon as someone questioned him about it he pretended to faint so that he wouldn't have to answer the question."

"He's only a bad actor if it didn't work.

"It didn't," Jean stated. "He lasted about twenty seconds. Then Marco said he was going to get Instructor Shadis and he jumped up and told everyone I had run away to go home to my mom."

"Did you actually?"

"I tried. I didn't make it far before Reiner found me and convinced me to stay." Jean sighed. "I still don't get why he did it. If he was our enemy why did he encourage and help us to be our best? Isn't that the same as helping your competition?"

"I don't get why anything is happening right now."

Whether Armin was referring to Reiner or the body switch, Jean didn't know. Either way, he nodded in agreement with the sentiment.

"What about Mikasa and Levi? Both are abrasive, good at fighting, and obsessed with protecting an idiot to unhealthy levels."

Armin didn't respond.

Had he offended him by bringing up Eren? Or maybe by insulting him? Hell if he knew. But he didn't need the only person in the world he could talk to to be angry at him. "Armin?"

It was the face Armin made when he was deep in thought, right on the verge of coming up with some sort of genius (or insane) idea.

Or at least that's what Jean thought it was. It was hard to tell when the face was being made on his body.

"...They'd pull it off better than us."

\--

On Day Six there was confusion.

“Hey, Arlert,” Levi came up to where Jean was sitting at the breakfast table, savouring the leftover soup they’d been served for breakfast.

“Don’t forget you’re on watch duty today. Now that you’ve decided to join the squad like a proper member again, you have to pull your weight.”

“Yes sir,” echoed two voices in unison.

Jean turned his head. On his left side sat his comrade, Armin Arlert - the _complete_ Armin Arlert.

“What was that, Kirstein?”

“Sorry sir. I thought you were giving the orders to me,” Jean responded.

“No, your duty is to clean up the stables. This time don’t let your horse bite you. We’ve used enough bandages on you this week. Let’s try to save them for people who actually need them, got it?”

“Understood, sir.”

Having given his orders, Captain Levi exited the room promptly.

Jean would usually make a sly remark in his head about how bitter the Captain had been, but today it was impossible. He was too _relieved_ to have any sort of negative thought in his mind.

Neither he or Armin were sure what had happened during the night to return them back to normal, but Jean wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He still had a mark on his hand from when Armin had done that in his body.

Armin’s spoon clinked as he dropped it into the tin bowl. Jean watched as he wordlessly got out of his chair and brought his dish to the kitchen. Jean couldn’t see what he was doing anymore, but he heard the sound of the outside door close.

Jean placed an elbow on the table and leaned forward. While he had been ecstatic about the switch back, Armin was… He was...

Jean couldn’t think of a word that would fit.

He knew Armin was relieved to be switched back, but after the initial adrenaline the two of them had received when they figured it out in the morning, Armin seemed to be anything but happy.

Jean would have been weirded out, maybe even angry, if he had not seen this type of behaviour before. Armin handled stress a lot differently than Jean did, and handled embarrassment even worse. While Jean preferred to stick his head into a pillow and scream, or openly complain about the event as if it was something stupid that he had no fault in, Armin preferred to do his screaming elsewhere. They would talk about what happened at some point, he knew, but he could wait for that time to come.

Eren, on the other hand, was having a hard time.

He’d been sitting in the room when Armin left without saying so much as a word to him. Jean could tell it was starting to take its toll on his comrade. He’d already tried to confront Armin two times and on one occasion even tried to question him about what was happening. Armin had just mumbled it was nothing and walked away.

If it had occurred last week, Jean would have been ecstatic. His crush ignoring his rival? He couldn’t ask for much more. But there came moments in life where even he couldn’t pretend what was happening was fair. Eren had no idea what was going on, except that his best friend was ignoring him.

“Hey, Eren.”

“What do you want?”

While the words were accusatory, the eyes and voice that conveyed them were not. If Jean could describe Eren’s look as anything, he would call it “lost.” Jean recognized it as the same one he’d had ever since they got him back from Kenny. Up until this point however, he’d never bothered to invest any interest in it. He knew the guy had gone through a lot of shit, but he also knew he was the last person in the world to try to cheer him up. So Jean had done his best to ignore it.

He couldn’t do the same this time.

Jean took a deep breath. In a week filled with once-in-a-life-time experiences there couldn't be any harm in one more.

“Don’t take what’s happening with Armin personally.” Jean straightened his back and looked at Eren from across the table. “He just doesn’t want to talk to anyone right now.”

“It’s my fault,” Eren replied.

‘ _No, it’s not your fault, it’s mine’_ is what Jean wanted to say, but he knew Eren wouldn’t understand what he meant.

“He’s probably angry at how much we’ve been fighting all week.”

“We always fight. That’s not your fault.” Jean couldn’t believe he’d just said those words. Or that he agreed with them. His mind had definitely gotten rattled during that switch.

“It is when I go too far. Armin’s told me before you’re not a bad guy.”

“He’s said the same about you to me.”

“You believe it?” Eren asked, glancing over at Jean out of the corner of his eye.

Jean grinned. “Not really, but Armin said it, so it’s got to be at least half true.”

“I feel the same way,” Eren replied. He gave a small smile to match Jean’s, but it’s life was brief.

Jean wasn’t sure what else to say. Eren didn’t speak either. He just sat there, leaning forward with a single elbow on the wooden table, staring into blank space with that same gloomy look in his eyes.

“Well if I’m not a completely crappy person, I hope you’ll believe me when I say Armin isn’t angry at you.”

“Well he isn’t angry at you. I tried to help him out when I thought you fucked up, but as soon as I tell him he pushes me aside and runs right to you. I don’t think it’s possible to say he’s not angry with me.”

 _Okay, so maybe he is a bit upset. But it’s more just cause you punched him in the face._ “Things are just… awkward. He’s not angry.”

“He tell you that, or you just making an excuse so I’ll leave you two alone?”

“Huh?”

“You said he wants to be left alone.”

Oh. That’s when Jean clued in to the real problem, the one that had been staring him in the face the entire week; Eren was jealous of _him_.

“He’s not ignoring you to spend time with me!”

Eren stared at him with an expression Jean recognized well.

“I’m not lying,” Jean insisted. “He’s ignoring me just as much as he is you.”

It didn’t seem to be enough.

“And...:” Jean paused, to give himself a moment to consider what he was going to say next. It went against every past encounter he’d ever had with Eren. “If something is ever seriously wrong, I’d let you know.”

Green eyes widened.

“But you have to do the same! This is an agreement, got it?”

Silence fell between the two of them. Jean swore, if Eren ended up laughing at him right now, he’d never try to hold a civil conversation with him again. Putting his own pride on the line was not something he did lightly, and he’d done it way too many times this week.

Eren’s chair was shoved backwards and a hand was slammed down flat against the table. The other one extended itself forward.

Jean stared. What was he trying to do; invite him to a fight?

“We have to shake on it.”

Oh.

Jean smirked as he stood and matched the pose. Before placing their palms together, he had one final condition: “If _anyone_ dares find out about this, the deal is off.”

Eren’s lips formed into a matching sly smile. “No argument here.”

They shook.

Once they let go, the two of them straightened their backs and pushed in their chairs, hiding all evidence of the encounter. It was best to get out of here soon, before things got even weirder.

Jean walked to the door, intent on heading to the stables.

“Jean, wait,” Eren called out.

“Yeah?” he turned back around.

Eren was no longer smirking, but at least the mopey expression was gone. He was back to looking like the suicidal bastard Jean was used to seeing. He looked better this way.

“Why’d you even say anything to me? I’ve been nothing but a jerk to you all week.”

Jean considered the question. He grinned as he came up with the perfect answer.

“I just wanted to return the favour; you really helped me out the other day.”

Jean left without waiting for a response. If there was one thing that could rival the miracle of being back in his own body, it would be the look of absolute confusion he’d left on Eren’s face.

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thank you to ShanaRay who did an amazing job editing this. She made me rewrite one scene over four times, which was painful, but the end product is four times better!
> 
> Also a thank out to melonpanparade who gave me a lot of title suggestions before I settled on this one.


End file.
